Wednesday, December 06, 2006

I know you may think this has nothing to do with Sweden but...

Here's me in the supermarket, wearing the new coat, shortly after the purchase:

The photo is courtesy of THS's cellphone -- so sort of fuzzy, but I think you get the idea. It's a Swedish-made coat that has padding inside it, so it's very warm.

In other news, I had the oral portion of my Swedish exam today.

There was a five minute-long text that was played aloud for us once, and then we, in our group of five, had to explain to the teacher what the narrative had been about.

My personal low point: when the teacher asked us in what era the story most probably took place, I said "some time previous Russian Revolution." What I was trying to say was "it must have been some time _before_ the Russian Revolution", but I mixed up the word for 'before' with the word for 'previous' AND forgot to say 'the', which in Swedish is added to the end of the word, as some of you may know, so it's easy to forget.

My personal high point: when, even though no such information was solicited from us, I stated that the author of the text _must_ have been Chekhov, because of the distinctively Chekhovian style. I was correct. So at least they know I understand, even if I sound like an idiot.

Tomorrow is the portion of the test where we have to write a long essay, and we have to display strong grammar skills. This is the part where I could really choke. I'll let you know how it goes.